$850 Million Solar Deal

Posted February 27, 2015

As reported by Bloomberg Business:

“Now Cook (Apple CEO) is putting his prodigious sums of money where his mouth is, proclaiming the “biggest, boldest and most ambitious project ever,” an $850 million agreement to buy solar power from First Solar, the biggest U.S. developer of solar farms. The deal will supply enough electricity to power all of Apple’s California stores, offices, headquarters and a data center, Cook said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs technology conference in San Francisco.”

Power: Apple will get 130 megawatts, enough to power 60,000 California homes

Location: First Solar’s California Flats Solar Project in Monterey County

Contract duration: 25 years

Footprint: 2,900 acres (122km.)

Start date: Middle of this year

Completion: End of 2016

“… The price of solar has been declining quicker than that of wind, and by 2050 solar could be the world’s biggest single source of electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. The Apple deal is the first of its size for solar, a milestone on the road to cheap, unsubsidized power from the sun.”